Hyper-Fic-Sations

The Littlest of Gestures Mean a Lot

Series: Skylanders

Genre: Romance

Context: This takes place in the year 2023, a year after Free Ranger and Doom Stone have become a romantic couple, which occurred in 2022. Free Ranger's backstory in my AU crops up as the main crux of why he's acting a little off. Said backstory, to simplify is that in the big storm that hatched Free Ranger, his parents died about 2 hours before he hatched. The survivor's guilt plagues him to this day as the death of his parents put his life on a steep downward trajectory of pain and suffering until he was 21.

Notes: Once more, we are in my AU titled "Amalgamation". It's located on the Skylanders fan wiki if you would like to learn more. Anyway, this is a very clear-cut Doom Stone x Free Ranger shipfic. And it also uses real names and nicknames, but only in character dialog. Free Ranger's backstory for this AU is also on the fan wiki and should be easily located from the Amalgamation main page.

• Doom Stone = Dom/Dominic/Honey/Sweet honey

• Free Ranger = Ray/Radyn/Sunshine/Ray of Sunshine

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Reading people isn't a strong suit of mine. It never has been, and I don't think it ever will be. But, even then, I know when my best friend isn't himself. And is most certainly not himself right now. Free Ranger hasn't been for a week and it's starting to worry me. I have a bad feeling as to why he's been off, but I'm sure that there is more that meets the eye.

It's 3 in the morning when I smell smoke in the air. That's surprisingly normal here, so I don't pay much mind. But I do wake up, pull myself together (literally, my pillar is in pieces) and sneak out of my room. I don't want to wake anyone up, so I haven't bothered to put my armor back on. I make my way out of the hallway and down the stairs to the living room. Where there's smoke, there's fire, and in our treehouse, that's in the living room. You'd think it'd be because of our fireplace, but it rarely ever is.

I round the corner and enter the living room to see Free Ranger standing there. He's got a bowl of burning plants, Air herbs I think, and he's waving around the smoke they're creating with one of his feathers. I've seen him do this before, it's called "smudging" and it's a cultural practice done by Storm Chickens. Something feels off though. His mood is pensive. I knock on the wall to alert him to my presence. Don't want to make the mistake of jumpscaring a chicken with rather powerful lungs. Last time, the team made sure they chewed me up.

"Hey, Ray. You're up early." I say, giving him an admittedly lovestruck smile. I can't help it, I'm smitten with him.

"Oh, hey Dom." He smiles a little at me, but I can see that it's forced. His eyes don't lie though, I can see how much he loves me when I look at them. They're tinted faintly with yellow, almost imperceptible to many. The lightning-bright glow of his light shines into the nearly pitch-black room, piercing through the darkness. I can see that his comb is messy and undone, not tied back in its usual ponytail and left hanging loose down his back. His tail is a similar story, having not been preened yet and fluffed with disarray. Free Ranger looks so unbelievably cute right now and if I had a heart that could, it would be leaping out of my chest and hitting me over the head. I'm so in love, but I need to focus on the task in my hand.

"Whatcha doin' up at this hour? You don't get up before 6, much less 3."

"I smelled the smoke and got curious. How about you?"

"Just woke up that way. Figured I'd...do some smudging." I noticed his hesitation but decided not to press while he's in the middle of it. It feels inappropriate. So I wait. I take a seat on our couch and watch. He waves the smoke around himself, then me a few times, and then taps the embers out. He pauses for a moment and grimaces, his glow dimming before it perks back up. He turns to leave but I stop him.